Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Pizza Pizza!

I had this monster craving yesterday for my very favorite food, ever.  Pizza. So I set out thinking, “Hmm…how am I gonna do this?” I’m hungrier than a “pita pizza”… I don’t want to blow it, how am I going to make this work? 

One trip to the supermarket later, and bam, we have a plan for a pizza!

Was searching for a lower-carb whole grain flour, soy, oat…something… when I stumbled upon this:



Whole grain, low carb baking mix? Well alrighty, let’s give that a try. (If you’re gluten-free, this is barking up the way wrong tree, sorry.)  $6.50 for a small bag, but I figured I would spend triple that on a delivery pizza.  So I bought it.  It had a funny texture, but it wasn’t a big deal.  I got to work.

3/4 + 2 TBS hot water
1 tsp Splenda brown sugar mix
1/2 tsp salt
1 packet yeast (I used yeast that works especially well with whole grain)
2 Cups Low Carb Baking Mix
Olive Oil cooking spray

Mix the first 4 ingredients together in a bowl, let rest for 5 minutes until the yeast is all frothy.  Dump that into the 2 Cups Low Carb Baking Mix.  When dough ball forms, remove and knead on a well-floured (baking mixed) surface for a few minutes.  Place dough ball in a large bowl sprayed with the cooking spray, cover and let it rise for about an hour or until roughly doubled in size.  *I was hungry and impatient, so I turned my oven to 200 degrees while I changed my clothes before starting, then promptly shut it off while I mixed and kneaded.  I stuck my bowl, covered with a towel in the warmish oven to rise.  Took about half the time.*

After dough has risen, punch down, cut in to 4 pieces, and go to town rolling it out.  It will be interesting, but don’t worry, just roll!

You can freeze any unused dough for up to 3 months, just wrap it in oiled plastic wrap, and make sure to defrost overnight in the fridge and let proof at room temp for 1 hour prior to using frozen dough.

Then Lacy and I topped our pizzas with Contadina Pizza Squeeze (30 cal for 1/4 c.), fat free mozz, with the addition of 1 piece of low fat string cheese (cause the FF stuff never melts as nice), then turkey pepperoni, veggies (Lacy only, I had a strict pepperoni craving!), and fresh herbs from the garden.


Baked at 400 degrees for about 15-20 minutes. (I was watching The Voice…when I smelled them, they were done. It’s not rocket science. Which is also why there are no "after baking" pictures, I was hungry! )

Deliciouso! HUGE serving size! (That cookie sheet is a professional baking sheet - it's ginormous!)

[If divided into 4 personal pizzas] the crust has :
200 calories,  4g fat, 22 carbs, 10g fiber (net carb = 12g!!!), and a whopping 28g protein.

So all in all, with all of our toppings, we had huge fantastic pizzas for under 400 calories and around 10g of fat.  Beat that, Dominos!